I'll Show You Mine If You Show Me Yours

I was in on a rather odd meeting the other day. A client of mine was meeting with a social networking team to add this important element to his opening, prelaunch marketing mix. The client wanted to have the team put a specific plan together with likely activities, goals/outcomes, and cost so that he could manage the effort and measure success. A fair and intelligent request, or so I thought. After my client articulated his needs, a very strange thing happened. The service provider wouldn't agree to provide any specifics.

"Surely he simply doesn't understand my client's needs," I thought. So I jumped in to try and add some clarity. No dice. Instead, we heard how difficult it is to measure this stuff, and coming with a set of expectations was counterproductive. That this work was organic and lots of things would get tried along the way. "Ah!" I said. "What might some of those 'things' be?"

"Could be anything," he said.

"Instead," he suggested, "why don't you tell me what you want, and then I'll do that. Usually my clients bring me something they've seen that they like and then we make it happen," he said, confusing me further. After all, these guys are the team that specializes in social media.

"You know, ultimately you'll just have to trust us to do this." Uh-huh. And I've got this bridge in Brooklyn I'm trying to get rid of, you know, for tax reasons. I wasn't about to stop.

"So what's an example of something that a client has seen and brought to you for implementation?", I asked, employing my best Perry Mason logic. I was going to pin him down yet. I could tell by the look in his eye that he had run out of room to maneuver. "Okay, maybe something like giving a book away to one of the people who've "friended" your company on Facebook." Eureka!

Turns out that the whole "avoidance" dance was driven by two things. First, my client had not fully expressed how he was going to pay the service provider for his insight and implementation. How they'd managed to have a half-dozen meetings prior to this one without that question resolved, I don't know. But I blame the service provider - always get that stuff clear at the beginning. Always!

The second reason, I hypothesize, was that the service provider didn't want to let the client know what happened inside the "black box", for fear that the client would take the ideas and implement them himself. That is something I see all too commonly from consultants and advertising firms. They hold onto every scrap of knowledge and IP as if each bit was as valuable as the next. Here's my take on that: your client doesn't want to steal the idea and implement it themselves. Who has time? Sure, some will try to do it, there's always an exception. But in my experience, entrepreneurs and small business managers simply don't have the time to learn how to implement a good idea. They want to pay experts to make things happen (usually involving ringing cash registers!) not learn how to manage social media or write code for a cool Flash effect.

Secondly, by protecting even 'generic' ideas/content as if they were the crown jewels, you diminish the value of the really good stuff. You miss an opportunity to a) demonstrate your expertise to the client, b) get the client on board with your service, and c) strengthen your own personal brand. Not to mention coming off like you simply don't have any ideas or don't know what you're doing.

Sharing something of value - giving it away - is becoming an increasingly important competitive tool in today's marketing environment. Access to all kinds of knowledge for free via the web is the new norm. But like giving a man a physics textbook doesn't mean it's likely he can actually build a rocket, sharing a bit of something you know about your field doesn't mean your client will put you out of work, either. So wise up and identify the real value you bring to your customers. Protect that core and use the rest to build prospects, clients, and good will. And for goodness sake, make sure you know how you'll get paid upfront.